Kavanaugh prepares to fight

26 September 2018

NormanL

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's interview with Fox News is unprecedented for a Supreme Court nominee. Given the aggressive, and increasingly lurid, attacks on him from the left, however, he had little choice but to go before the cameras and start fighting back.

It's a risky strategy. Kavanaugh forcefully denied all of the allegations thrown at him. Senate Democrats and their enablers in the press will pull his statememts apart...and worse. Their entire effort is aimed at destroying Kavanaugh, not simply defeating his nomination. As the Wall Street Journal's editorial board writes, the left is engaging -- with glee -- in character assasination:

Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, withheld Ms. Ford’s letter from her colleagues for six weeks until she sprung it at the last minute. She has since been demanding a fair and public hearing for Ms. Ford. But on Sunday she leapt on Ms. Ramirez’s claim to demand an “immediate postponement” in the hearing now scheduled for Thursday.

Fair? What about fairness for Mr. Kavanaugh, who since Ms. Ford’s accusation has offered to testify under oath that none of this happened? Instead he has had to hear himself denounced day after day as a sexual predator as Democrats and Ms. Ford’s lawyers try to dictate how a Senate committee should conduct its fact-finding.

The obvious strategy is to delay the hearing, and Mr. Kavanaugh’s chance to be heard and get a vote, for as long as possible. Who knows which other long-ago classmates might next rummage through their memories to recall what Mr. Kavanaugh might have done that no one else can remember?

The latest Democratic demand is that Chairman Chuck Grassley call as a witness Mark Judge, who Ms. Ford claims was present when Mr. Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. Mr. Judge has already told congressional staff—lying to staff is a crime—that he knows nothing about the episode. But Democrats want Mr. Judge on the public stage so they can use his admitted history of drinking to smear Mr. Kavanaugh by association.

Judge Kavanaugh said firmly on Monday in a letter to Senators Grassley and Feinstein that “I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out.” Good for him, and credit as well to President Trump for standing by him and (mostly) restraining his rhetoric.

We warned Republicans not to fall for this politics of uncorroborated accusation, and perhaps now they understand that they are being played. Women who are abused deserve to be heard, but turning #MeToo into a political weapon undermines that cause.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said he would "fight" Judge Kavanaugh's nomination "with everything I have." The Senator is true to his word. But to his credit, Judge Kavanaugh has made it clear he will not roll over in the face of Schumer's mob, their smears, or their scorched earth attack on his life and character.

A good man is heading into the lion's den. He will need -- and he deserves -- our support.